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A committee of the North Carolina Board of Community Colleges on Thursday approved a policy that would allow illegal immigrants into the two-year colleges.

An impalpable censorship is eliminating all intellectual and artistic vitality in Western society with a vengeance; persistent recourse to euphemism and circumlocution is corrupting and debasing language; and the coercive atmosphere of guilt, fear and intimidation surrounding this censorship is inhibiting the easy give-and-take of human discourse, the life-blood of democratic institutions, and ultimately of man's own social and spiritual life. Thoreau warned us to 'beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.' What would he have said about enterprises that require new vocabulary?

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- In this downturn, the Federal Reserve is fighting on two interrelated fronts simultaneously, battling to keep the real economy growing and to revive the credit markets. The Fed has won some victories on both fronts. A serious recession has been prevented so far, and the worse fears of a systemic credit meltdown have been put to rest. However, if health isn't restored to the credit system, the downturn could worsen......................

OK folks, after Monday's and yesterday's regular drop in crude and gas prices resulting from profit taking of speculators, would anyone want to bet that gasoline will be 5-10 cents higher at the pumps by Friday/Saturday this coming weekend? I'm willing to bet one gallon of gas to a donut, it does. I have watched this pattern for well over 8 months now. As of this morning both commodities being reported on Bloomberg are indicating the regular Wed/Thur/Fri rise. If prices drop today or Thursday, there will be the obligatory incident somewhere as a pipeline blows up or refinery fire,...

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LOS ANGELES — Home foreclosures in the Raleigh-Cary metropolitan market surged more than 122 percent in 2007 from 2006, with 3,884 properties in some state of legal proceedings................

"Underlying CBO's baseline projections is a forecast that U.S. economic growth will slow in calendar year 2007 but pick up in 2008. Specifically, CBO anticipates that GDP will grow by 2.3 percent in real terms in 2007, a full percentage point less than the growth recorded last year. For 2008, CBO forecasts that GDP growth will rebound to 3.0 percent. Under the assumptions of the baseline, real GDP growth would continue at a similar rate in 2009 and 2010 and then slow to 2.7 percent in 2011 and 2012. For the rest of the projection period, average growth of real...

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks headed to a lower open Friday after Wachovia Corp. said it expects to increase quarterly loan losses..... The nation's fourth-largest bank said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that credit market volatility could cause a $1.1 billion write-down for October alone. The problem stems from its asset-backed securities, such as collateralized debt obligations, that have lost value on sinking investor demand.The market was also on edge after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday that policy makers expect the economy to "slow noticeably" this quarter. His comments caused major indexes to fall...

Any fiscally minded folk care to speculate on what the DOW, NASDAQ, S&P, Bonds and Currency markets will do today after the 'dip' yesterday??

Daniel Gallington: A very dirty story on China’s food Daniel Gallington, The Examiner Aug 15, 2007 3:00 AM (5 hrs ago) WASHINGTON - "I don’t eat them myself” are the wise words of a Beijing baker quoted recently in an Associated Press story about the pervasiveness of adulterated foods in China. In his case, his rolls are half-filled with filthy scrap cardboard gathered from the ground.Such practices are so widespread that the recent episodes of tainted seafood, toothpaste, pet food — and now millions of lead-base painted toys — all from China, shouldn’t surprise anyone. Nevertheless, most Americans don’t have...

OK, maybe a little more pertinent to last year and Christmas, but the subject is still very relevant today, IMHO. Who Stole Christmas? Twas the month before Christmas When all through our land, Not a Christian was praying Nor taking a stand. See the PC Police had taken away, The reason for Christmas - no one could say. The children were told by their schools not to sing, About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things. It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say December 25th is just a " Holiday ". Yet the shoppers were ready with...

Updated Web Site, GPS Monitoring Unveiled For N.C. Sex OffendersRALEIGH, N.C. -- Convicted sex offenders will have fewer places to hide from authorities in 2007, say state officials who on Monday unveiled an updated registry Web site and satellite tracking system for the worst offenders.

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"As of October 31, 2005, however, no U.S. nuclear company has yet applied for a new construction permit.".......

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong said he plans to move forward with his case against three members of Duke University's men's lacrosse team despite DNA results that do not match evidence collected from a woman who says the athletes raped her......(excerpt)

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Women Who Avoid Marital Fights May Be More Likely To Die POSTED: 11:14 am EST February 17, 2005 UPDATED: 11:36 am EST February 17, 2005 Married women who avoid conflict with their spouses have an increased risk of dying from any cause, according to a news release from the Second International Conference on Women, Heart Disease and Stroke.

Do you think veterans are given enough respect in the United States?

For what it is worth fellow FReepers, I have never seen voter turn out to be so large in Franklin County, NC. Showed up at the polls at 6:20 am just like in 2000. This morning, the line waiting to vote was at 200+ deep in the small town I live just outside of the city limits ( 3 mi.). In 2000, the line was only 50-60 people deep. We have had some growth in the area, but nothing to reflect the percentage in the turn out this morning to vote since moving to the area in 1991. After leaving...

Wed, Oct 27, 2004 Discuss today's poll Today's Poll The presidential election is less than one week away. For whom do you plan to vote? Bush 50% => 1268 votes Kerry 41% => 1040 votes Other 2% => 54 votes I'm not sure 3% => 76 votes I don't plan to vote/I don't care 2% => 61 votes Current number of voters: 2499 © *The Excite Poll is provided by Rosner Interactive Services. It is a voluntary poll for our users, and is not scientifically projectable to any other population. We present these polls to give Excite users an opportunity...